Monrovia and its environs are overwhelmed by stockpill of garbage, creating serious health hazard and environmental pollution that poses grave danger to inhabitants especially children, thereby contradicting Mayor Jefferson Koijee’s much publicized “Green City” campaign.
Residents across the capital have resorted to burning uncollected garbage due to failure of the Monrovia City Corporation under Mayor Koijee to collect waste as part of the MCC statutory functions.
A New Dawn’s investigation across Monrovia and its environs discovers heap of garbage in various communities, breeding flies, cockroaches and rodients amid cooked food centers and market places along the streets.
The Nancy B. Doe Market in Sinkor, which hosts thousands of marketers and their children that attend the market school; Slipway Public school area; West Point intersection; Randall Street, Water Front and other parts, are faced with serious health danger.
At some of the garbage sites, this paper observes thick smoke blowing across communities from buruning filth lit by unknown individuals, contradicting law of the Environmental Pollution Agency (EPA) which prohibits burning garbage in public.
Elsewhere across Monrovia, sewage system breaks lose thereby spilling feces into the streets to the disgust of passers-by.Residents blame the Monrovia City Corporation for the increase presence of garbage because it no longer dispatches trucks to collect the filth, causing it to pile up in the streets.
They complain the MCC collects fees for waste management in the country, but shows less interest in collecting the garbage that directly affects human lives.
Others wonder what does the City Corporation do with fees collected for waste management.
Meanwhile, they call on President George Manneh Weah to take a critical look at the filthiness of the capital and its environs in order to take pro-active measures that would advert a potential outbreak of diseases here.
When contacted, MCC Media Relations Officers Pekeleh Gbuapaye, says the National Legislature should see waste issue as a national emergency, urging the need to increase budgetary allotment for the City Corporation to enhance its solar waste program.He discloses that the Monrovia City Corporation is faced with financial and logistical challenges in removing garbage within Monrovia and its environs.
According Pekeleh, the MCC uses 460 gallons of gas on a daily basis to remove garbage from the MCC disposal points to transfer stations.He continues that on the overall, the corporation uses 1,000 gallon of gasoline to carry the garbage from the transfer stations to the landfill site in Wheine Town, outside Monrovia.
He explains the MCC rents about 17 to 25 trucks and also hires people daily to work, who have to be paid.He notes that the Government of Liberia (GOL) suppose to give the MCC US$1.5 Million in line with budgetary allotment, but unfortunately, the City Corporation has only received 750,000, which is half of the total budget, adding that as a result of the limited funding, the MCC finds it difficult to collect garbage in the city limit.
He however says in the face of these constrains, the MCC is working along with partners, including the World Bank and the Government to see how best the issue may be addressed.He calls on residents to reframe from burning garbage, as it a serious environmental impact, saying that while the MCC is aware of the presence of garbage here, it does not in any way give any citizen the right to waste garbage in the streets.
By Emmanuel Mondate–Editing by Jonathan Browne
